The Mourinho Thread

[GodZola 630]

The thing is it is 3 months and the 'run' shows no sign of stopping. When do we call it a day? when we are 30 points off 4th place going into New Year? Even if we go on a run of 10 straight wins now until New Year we will only be there and there about the 4th place by then, now that is talking about a perfect run which is improbable as it stands.

Actually fella, IMHO we have been playing better recently, nothing like where we should be but an improvement, lady luck is certainly not on our side, stonewall pens against Porto & Kiev should of left us with a far easier task of qualifying in the CL, pundits were saying we were the better side against West Ham despite having 10 men & Butland was the man of the match for Stoke the other night, it ain't much but there is s glimmer of hope that the players are starting to find their feet.

How long do we wait? Well I can't answer that - Roman will! I've already said that I couldn't care less if we have a bad season or not - it was bound to happen at some stage, sometimes you have to go backwards before going forwards so I hope this is the case for us in the future.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Yes we are 15th but a couple of wins & we are in the top 10, 9 points off 4th place is nothing at this stage.

I was stating that their poor run cost them the title & despite loud noises coming from various outlets their board backed their manager & didn't go trigger happy, the facts speak for themselves that City's board have given Pelligrino a massive boost by splashing the cash.....again, what did José get this summer bar a one out one in policy & a couple of 2m signings that he didn't want & lets not forget they also had the brainwave of letting Cech go to a rival against his better judgement, so a world of difference for the 2 managers.

Its kin well October not April, things can change very quickly & there is time for that to happen & if it does there is going to be a lot of red faces on here, if it doesn't then I pressume sooner rather than later the detractors on here will get their wish......

It's not just where we are, but that we completely deserve to be there. Yes if we can put together 3-4 consecutive wins the situation would look differently, but as I said to Tomo, there has been absolutely no sign of that and that is the main problem.

Also, it's pretty easy to put all the positives on Jose and all the negatives on the board, but remember that Jose did 'splash' on Cuadrado and Pedro and the board was willing to 'splash' big time on Stones. Also it was Jose who did not want to go for a desperately needed fullback (in addition to Baba) and insisted on Falcao; both of those are biting us in the ass right now.

[Stingray 9,441]

The rationalisations are strong these days. I call bullshit.

[Iggy Doonican 4,186]

A.V.B. back at the Bridge is it April 1st?. The bloke was so out of his depth he probably got The Bends.

[Jimmu 10]

José Mourinhos return to dark side highlights deep malaise at Chelsea

http://gu.com/p/4dnf6?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_M%C3%A1sol%C3%A1s_a_v%C3%A1g%C3%B3lapra

[Stats 7,056]

You've just said it yourself 'our form was just too good' you see all too quickly forgotten isn't it? Its transparent that we are in a rut but let's just throw José to the lions cus its all his fault, not the players nor the board......

Now I'm not going to go and Google Citys poor run but I know they lost to Burnley in that poor spell & deservedly so but whatever, that loss of form lost them the title, no? They then recovered after said poor spell & managed to get second - some patience from their board & fans unlike some on here, so with 28 kin well games left why is it impossible in so many peoples thinking that we won't turn it around?

But we have been poor. City during this stage last season had some convincing results. They were not shambolic like we have been right now. We would do very well to get anywhere near the points City accumulated last season.

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

A.V.B. back at the Bridge is it April 1st?. The bloke was so out of his depth he probably got The Bends.

lol... where u read it?

[Term-X 7,891]

José Mourinhos return to dark side highlights deep malaise at Chelsea

http://gu.com/p/4dnf6?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_M%C3%A1sol%C3%A1s_a_v%C3%A1g%C3%B3lapra

Nice read.

[didierforever 7,349]

so why answer ??? obviously you do.

Anyway what did you think of the presser today?

Handled them well I thought

if games could be won in pressers... we would undoubtedly be the best in the world. fortunately games are played as well as won on the field.

[Laylabelle 9,359]

You can't seriously be comparing City dropping to 3rd with us sitting 15th in the table in November! Moyes' united came close but we've managed to out do them. There's no two ways about it, we're in phenomenally deep shit! I'm sorry, but it's pure denial if we don't realize that.

least moyes had more of a excuse,being out of depth sorta thing.this who knows what's going on.no spark n forgot how to play it seems

[GodZola 630]

It's not just where we are, but that we completely deserve to be there. Yes if we can put together 3-4 consecutive wins the situation would look differently, but as I said to Tomo, there has been absolutely no sign of that and that is the main problem.

Also, it's pretty easy to put all the positives on Jose and all the negatives on the board, but remember that Jose did 'splash' on Cuadrado and Pedro and the board was willing to 'splash' big time on Stones. Also it was Jose who did not want to go for a desperately needed fullback (in addition to Baba) and insisted on Falcao; both of those are biting us in the ass right now.

Not sure if they are positives just stating a defence that gets very easy over looked.

Cuadrado was bought last season (Pedro a like for like replacement) reports today are suggesting Emanelo is now under pressure cus Cuadrado along with Baba & a few others were his choices & could face the axe over his poor recruitment. When you compare our activities to City who despite having a very strong squad went out & splashed serious money on strengthening it, then its easy to see why Jose has the hump!

As for Stones, yes agreed but how late did they leave it before declaring their interest, unlike last season when the board were brilliant in their transfer dealings - done & dusted by July.

No idea on Falcao but I concur with you about a full back, trust me, just because I'm playing devils advocate doesn't mean I haven't been critical of Jose this season however having supported the club for 25 years when were shite it will take much more than a current poor spell for me to throw Jose under his bus!

[Muzchap 8,966]

Even longer read

https://anthonyduhig.wordpress.com/2015/10/09/chelsea-a-campaign-of-complacency-and-crisis/

[GodZola 630]

But we have been poor. City during this stage last season had some convincing results. They were not shambolic like we have been right now. We would do very well to get anywhere near the points City accumulated last season.

I haven't said we haven't been poor - it would be extremely arrogant of me to say otherwise, however there are some fundamental reasons why it's not all José fault & I've stated those already. As Tomo has rightly pointed out their run wasn't as bad but because their poor run of results wasn't at the start of the season it wasn't seized on by the media & secondly as I already said their manager was given the time to get them playing again - perhaps if their board were hasty at the time & made a change to their managerial position then who knows they might not of remained in the top four?

[GodZola 630]

The rationalisations are strong these days. I call bullshit.

Would you care to expand on what exactly is or is not bullshit?

[Rhino's Skin 972]

if games could be won in pressers... we would undoubtedly be the best in the world. fortunately games are played as well as won on the field.

if games could be won in pressers... we would undoubtedly be the best in the world. fortunately games are played as well as won on the field.

disagree actually...because normally a load of negative stuff gets reported from them.

It was decent and straightforward today bar a couple of poor attempts by journo's to get Mourinho to say something controversial.

Injuries update

Costa and Pedro latest

Ramires contract

A bit about Jurgen Klopp, liverpool and Man Utd

and club not received anything ref Eva.

nice and simple and straight to the point

[Henrique 9,133]

José Mourinho’s return to dark side highlights deep malaise at Chelsea | Richard Williams

We live in a volatile age, our judgments blown this way and that by the slightest scrap of evidence. A cracking victory for Chelsea at home against Liverpool on Saturday would bring a swift halt to weeks of speculation about the causes of the apparent meltdown at Stamford Bridge. Suddenly there would be much calculating of the results needed to carry José Mourinho’s team back into the top four by the end of the season.

Lying 15th in the Premier League, with 11 points from 10 matches, Chelsea require an average of 2.1 points from each of their remaining 28 fixtures in order to match the 70 points that secured the final Champions League slot for Manchester United last May. In Mourinho’s three title-winning seasons at the Bridge, the averages were 2.5, 2.4 and 2.3. So if he can persuade his players that their season starts here and now, the target should be within reach.

Despite an improved performance in defeat against Stoke City in midweek, however, it is hard to imagine Chelsea losing their persistent misfire overnight and going from a stuttering second gear to peak revs in sixth without a pause. The collective collapse of form suggests a malaise with deeper roots.

Eden Hazard’s decisive failure from the penalty spot at the Britannia Stadium on Tuesday seemed every bit as significant as the improved performances from several of his team-mates in the preceding 120 minutes. It is hard to believe that had the reigning player of the year been taking that kick this time last season, the ball would not have found its way past Jack Butland.

Even before his team lost to Arsenal in the Community Shield on 2 August, Mourinho appeared to have entered the new season in a darker mood, as if the recaptured title had to be defended with a spikier combativity off the pitch as well as on it. The man who returned to England two years earlier, proclaiming his new mellowness and maturity, was back in his familiar toxic mode, spraying poison at an increasingly random series of targets.

Six days after the defeat at Wembley came the row with Eva Carneiro and Jon Fearn. The two senior members of Chelsea’s medical staff were disciplined by Mourinho for obeying the instincts of their profession – as well as the referee’s instruction – rather than the dictates of gamesmanship by entering the pitch to treat the injured Hazard in the closing minutes of the first league match of the season against Swansea City, with Chelsea already down to 10 men and on the brink of dropping points. Carneiro has become a cause célèbre, like the Reading ambulancemen so irresponsibly and inaccurately criticised by Mourinho after Petr Cech suffered a serious head injury during a match at the Madejski Stadium in 2006.

Another target, however, is not random at all. For Mourinho, Arsène Wenger is a rival who must not only be brought down but held down. He must be poked and prodded constantly, his weaknesses held up to insult and ridicule.

Mourinho uses the Frenchman like a scratching post, as something on which to sharpen his claws. Amusing to some, this one-sided feud provides a regular supply of back-page headlines. But what kind of achievement is it to provoke a man like Wenger, whose 19 years in north London have brought great benefits to the English game as a whole, into losing his composure and his dignity?

Wenger can look after himself, of course. Whatever the justice of the complaints made against his recruitment policy by Arsenal’s fans in the seasons since their last Premier League title was won, he has presided over a period of consistent achievement and progress for his club on and off the pitch.

The same could never be said for Mourinho, whose priorities are different and more selfish. His failure to supervise any sort of successful pathway from the club’s well-endowed academy to its first-team squad is a significant blemish on his record. Despite recent promises, there is no sign that he can do anything to rectify it.

In terms of trophies, the only currency in which he deals, Mourinho ranks among the great coaches of football history, his achievements in Portugal, Italy and Spain perhaps even outshining his successes in England. Eight league titles in 13 seasons in four different countries cannot be denied and his treble-winning season with Internazionale was genuinely historic. But apart from at Porto, which was only ever a stepping stone to the highest level, it never ends well. The cloud of sulphur in which he envelops his adversaries eventually escapes his control and chokes him, too. When he departs, there is a sense of relief among his employers.

Perhaps this time will be the exception and a faltering project can be revived. Faced with the challenge of Liverpool, who are now led by a manager hoping to emulate the sort of impression Mourinho made first time around, Chelsea’s players may rediscover the qualities that took them to the title, while their manager sets aside the feuds that waste emotional energy and rededicates himself to the task of drawing the maximum from his squad. But through a catalogue of recent errors – the rejection of Kevin De Bruyne and André Schürrle, the failure to sign John Stones, the willingness to let Cech go, the reliance on defensive midfielders such as Mikel John Obi and Nemanja Matic who are not fit to lace Claude Makélélé’s boots – he has made the process harder.

There was always something not quite right about his second coming at Stamford Bridge. Whatever his protestations, he would have regarded it as his manifest destiny to be the man to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford. That door was locked then and is likely to remain so, whatever the future holds for Louis van Gaal. Mourinho’s departure from west London, when it comes, is most likely to be followed by an offer to succeed Laurent Blanc at Paris Saint-Germain, where the salaries are paid by the Qatar Investment Fund.

We know Mourinho has a soft spot for the legend of Brian Clough. But would he ever be ready for the sort of challenge that Clough accepted in 1975, taking on a team lying 13th in the second tier of English football and leading them to the very summit of the European game? Imagine him accepting Kuwaiti money to replace the apparently imperilled Dougie Freedman at the City Ground, with Forest currently lying 17th in the Championship. That would be a real test of his talents, even greater than the one he faces now.

[lucio 5,418]

Even longer read

https://anthonyduhig.wordpress.com/2015/10/09/chelsea-a-campaign-of-complacency-and-crisis/

best piece of writing, I've read since the hobbit.

[Tomo 21,733]

Yes, and the fact that this one is adds pressure and changes the whole situation. Also having a bad run in the middle of the season means that at least the team has showed that it can play decent football. For us this season there has been no sign that we can improve or that we are heading in an upward direction.

Not always, 10-11 we were riding our luck from the get go and it ran out mid November in spectacular style. Even in 12-13 we weren't very convincing despite winning well till THAT United game, only time in the 3 years between the double and Mous return we looked good performance wise was the early stages of AVB and a couple of isolated periods under Rafa.

Even if the performances don't improve, we have far too much quality in this squad for results not too sooner rather than later, I'm not saying this hasn't been shit or we aren't in the doghouse because it has and we are, but look at Liverpool and Spurs last season, both were average at best and diabolically bad at worse but finished 6th and 5th respectively, over a 38 game season cream will always rise, at absolute worst we will finish 6th, maybe 7th if there's a Newcastle 11-12, Everton 13-14 style surprise package but below that? Won't happen.